Big news

September 18, 1996, a letter arrived from Leo Kramar.
“Dear Elena! I have some very big news to tell you! You cannot imagine my surprise when sometime in July Gunilla got a telephone call – from Israel – and you will not believe it, it was my own uncle, my father’s younger brother Bedrich, talking to me! For the first time in nearly sixty years. The first thing Beda said to me after 60 years in his beautiful Moravian accent was: “Listen, lad, do you still have your ears stickin’ out like you did?” He is 90 years old and still strong, sketching, painting and teaching drawing at their old people’s home in Herzliya. We have written letters and sent photos to each other and of course, we are now in a hurry to go to Israel to meet him and his family.”
Leo and Gunilla flew in, and we met in Herzliya. The spacious Seniors’ Home. Outside door “114” hung a ceramic bas-relief, a colorful clown on yellow plate. We entered and then came the hugging and kissing. I gazed at Beda’s face – huge gray eyes bulged from the tortoise skin. There were pictures on the walls and I asked about them. “Old stuff,” he grinned. “And where are the new ones?” “I’m not going to do a striptease in front of you!” he said. Beda’s wife Hanna led us all to the dining room; on our way, Beda poked with his stick at some door. “Are the pictures there?” I asked. Beda grinned enigmatically. From that moment there was a kind of conspiracy between us. Over lunch we excitedly discussed our improbable encounter. Beda was silent. Probably hesitated, should he show his works or not? Then he stood up rested on his stick and said, “Striptease for dessert.”